Egypt welcomed a total of 14.9 million tourists last year, breaking the previous record of 14.7 million tourists registered in 2010.
Statistics from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism show that the tourism industry has not been affected by the Israel-Hamas war, VisaGuide World reports.
Egypt's Minister of Tourism Ahmed Issa attributed the increase in the number of international arrivals to the coordinated efforts between the Ministry of Tourism, the private sector and strategic partners.
Minister Issa said that among the achievements in 2023 is a 10% increase in the number of hotel rooms, reaching a total of 220,000 rooms. This increase is in line with the ministry's accommodation targets set for 2024.
Furthermore, the Supreme Council of Antiquities' revenues jumped fivefold from fiscal year 2023 to 2024, effectively reducing its dependence on government budgets from two-thirds of its expenditures to zero.
The Egyptian Minister of Tourism emphasized his ministry's commitment to sustainable tourism development. According to him, this means balancing economic growth, protecting the environment and cultural heritage, and delivering economic and social benefits to the nation.
The Minister then addressed the most important issues in this area, explaining the key parts of the national strategy for tourism development starting in November 2022.
These include boosting the tourist travel process by doubling the number of airline seats, improving the tourism investment climate, increasing the number of hotel rooms, and improving the overall tourism experience and tourism in the country. This includes improving the quality of service.
Additionally, Issa emphasized the importance of partnering with the private sector to foster investment and increase the number of rooms to accommodate a total of 30 million tourists by 2028.
As part of this objective, the Minister unveiled the finalization of the Hotel Investment Incentive, which is awaiting final coordination in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance. According to a report by Skift, multiple travel companies have seen an increase in trip cancellations among Western travelers since October last year.
We saw this whole fear of rapid escalation between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. Shortly after, Egypt and Jordan tanked. Everything was tanked in the Middle East.
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Despite the start of the war in October, Egypt continued to grow its tourism industry, receiving a total of 3.6 million visitors in the past three months. Although this is far from Egypt's target of 600,000, this represents an 8% increase from 2022.
